Holiday Special
by editor frog
Summary: When Garcia and Emily decide to spend a weekend watching Christmas movies and specials, they learn a little something about their colleagues that they didn't expect...
1. Garcia's Great Idea

**As it's Christmas, there's going to be a plethora of Christmas specials, movies and (gasp) non-stop Christmas music on every channel. So which ones do our favorite profilers like? We're about to find out...

* * *

**

"You're a mean one, Mr. _Grinch_…you really _are_ a heel…"

"Come on Emily, it's not that bad," Garcia gently chided her friend. "I mean, there's worse things than being stuck at work in the middle of a snowstorm."

"No, it's not that," Emily said. "I _love_ The Grinch. Watch it at this time every year, really."

"No kidding?"

"Bought the DVD two years ago. Damn near wore it out."

"The cartoon version or the live action?"

"There's a live action one?"

"Atta girl." Garcia smiled widely. "Maybe if our boss isn't a Grinch, we can go home early…"

"That or JJ doesn't come 'round with a notice that we're leaving for Panama City or Phoenix or Paducah. I swear, I feel like I could just stay home for once this Christmas and watch the old specials."

Garcia smiled wider. "Maybe we can."

"Huh?"

"Your place. Right after work, and I'll pack a bag. We'll make a weekend of it."

"Of…what?"

"Christmas specials. Christmas movies. Decorating your tree and making cookies and whatnot. I mean, it's the 15th, but so what, right?"

Emily thought about that a minute. Usually her Christmases were spent seeing her parents (when her mom wasn't working), unless of course she was working on a case out of town. And that was only on Christmas Eve and Day.

"Sounds fun. I'll get the guest room ready…but don't you and Kevin have plans?"

"He's stuck working on this big case, some people over on eleven that decided to get 'cute'," the tech said. "All hush-hush and whatnot. He's booked solid until they break it."

"Wow. That sucks."

"Well, at least they're not looking at _me_, which makes me all sorta warm and fuzzy on the inside."

"There is that."

"So, you go convince the boss-man that we need to take cover from the snow, and I'll make a list. Who knows, we might gain a few new ideas along the way…"

Emily made a beeline for Hotch's office. It _was _five o'clock, after all. And this _was_ the federal government…


	2. Yes, Spencer, there is a Santa Claus

**Standard disclaimers apply.

* * *

**

To Emily's great relief, the snow had stopped falling as soon as she left the marine base at Quantico. Though she liked the picture-postcard look snow brought to the area, it was just too much when she had to scrape off her car seven times in one day from the white stuff.

Settling in at her apartment, she decided to get into the spirit of things and actually _cook_ something. Emily rummaged through the refrigerator, looking for something that might feed two very hungry people. A knock on the door startled her.

"Em, come on, people are staring and I'm about to sing!"

Emily had to laugh. Only Garcia would actually make good on that threat. She opened the door to find not only her friend standing with an oversized bag in her hands but a very tall drink of water that looked like he'd been caught up in a hurricane and dropped in front of Emily's doorstep.

"Reid?" she asked. "You okay?"

"She said you were playing The Grinch," Emily managed to hear as the young man made his way inside. "I kinda thought…well…"

"He wanted to come too," Garcia finished. "I promised him food and a Christmas tree, and next thing I knew he was kinda racing me to go find Esther…"

"Wow," Emily said, closing the door. "I knew you liked Halloween, Reid, but Christmas…"

"I like Christmas."

"Just never thought you were that big into it."

"I liked the story of the original Santa Claus as a kid. My mom used to tell it to me when we put up our tree and I hung my stocking."

Garcia had to chuckle. "Yes, Spencer, there really _is_ a Santa Claus?"

"Actually, there was. The story goes that a man during the middle ages had three daughters who wanted to get married. At the time, a dowry was needed in order to marry, and the family was so impoverished that the man thought he would have to prostitute his daughters out in order to make the amount needed for them to marry. A man overheard the family's predicament and, in the spirit of generosity, tossed bags full of gold coins down the chimney. The daughters were able to marry, and the man was able to save his family's honor. It's because of this that we get the idea of Santa Claus."

"Wow," Garcia said.

"I think I heard that story once before," Emily admitted. "Couldn't tell you where, though…"

"So, Em, I was thinking," Garcia said quickly, taking over as maestro of the gathering's affairs. "I brought more stuff—Esther's keeping it warm downstairs—and I'll cook while you two go get the tree. Soon as we're all here, we can play The Grinch and watch that poor dog with the sled, eh?"

"Sounds good," Emily said. "The tree's this way, Reid…"


	3. Emily's Christmas Tree

**Standard disclaimers apply.

* * *

**

"No, no—see, you string them up _this_ way…need to get the lights _inside_ the tree…"

"Emily, you're going in a zig-zag pattern," Reid pointed out. "And it's getting harder to follow along when every five seconds you're moving the string again."

"Yeah, but there's just something about being able to see inside the Christmas tree and look at all the pretty lights," the woman said.

"Maybe you should get one of those pre-lit trees, Em," Garcia called out, looking over the island as she worked and laughing at the tangled mess her friends were getting into. "Might save you the headache of taking the thing down later…"

"I dunno. Maybe this year I'll leave my tree up six months."

"Oooh, oooh," Garcia squealed, watching as the famous Grinch song began to play. _"You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch…"_

"_You really are a heel!" _Emily sang, keeping time with Garcia. _"Your heart is full of spiders, you've got garlic in your soul, Mr. Gri-i-i-i-nch…"_

"_I wouldn't touch you with a…thirty-nine and a half foot po-o-o-le!" _Reid sang, showing off a little known talent the young profiler had.

"Wow!" Emily said, her jaw nearly at the floor. "You're pretty good!"

"Hey, I watched this every year. Even my mom liked it."

"How is she, anyway?" Garcia asked.

"Well, she's…she's good," Reid said. "As good as she is when she's taking her meds."

"You going to see her?"

"Thinking about it. That is, if we don't end up working. I may steal this movie from you to show her."

Emily immediately set about hiding her prized Christmas special away from Reid's quick fingers. "Good luck with that," she said, emerging from the back of her apartment with a big smile on her face.

Soon the problem with the lights was solved and the fun part came—putting Christmas ornaments on the tree.

"Oh, I can't believe I still have this," Emily said, her eyes lighting up as she pulled out the little stuffed bear dressed in a Santa hat and red scarf. "I got this when we were in France. I was eight."

"And you put him on your tree?" Garcia asked, stirring something in a pot. The smell of tomatoes and spice blended together with the faint scent of fried hamburger, and Emily's little-used Crock-Pot was getting a workout.

"Yeah. I got him at Christmas—it's just a little ornament—and I'd put it on _every_ year. I liked that Christmas—Mom wasn't working, and we were just spending Christmas at my grandfather's."

"I thought the French were more into nativity scenes."

"They are," Emily said, before Reid could say something. "I mean, they put up Christmas trees too—mostly real ones—but they try to dig it out of the ground so it can either be recycled or replanted. I think some have gone to the artificial tree by now, but when I was a kid…"

"Did you have a nativity scene?"

"My grandfather did. It was just…" The look on Emily's face as she recalled it was one of awe. "It had almost a hundred figures on it, and all the characters were elaborately detailed. The bag of gold in one of the wise men's hands was really made of a tiny piece of gold, the sheep looked like real sheep…"

"There's a thing to that, isn't there?"

"Yeah. Christmas lasts until the fifth of January, when they believe the wise men got to Bethlehem. When you put the nativity scene out, you build it a lot like we would open advent calendars here—certain days bring out certain people. The wise men are always last, and on the 25th Jesus arrives, and the day before Mary and Joseph arrive, and so forth."

"Hmm," Garcia said, looking for the Emily's stereo. "Speaking of that…"

"You brought music too?"

"Hey, we listened to music when we put up the tree at _my_ house," Garcia said. "My parents would go get the tree and my brothers and I would round up the ornaments. We'd put on all the classics, and even some of the humorous ones." Looking at the back of a CD, Garcia chuckled. "Here's one," she said, and soon the strains of a very funny song had even the normally straight-faced Reid in stitches.

"_Oh, rust and smoke, the heater's broke, the door just blew awa-a-ay…I light a match to see the dash, and then I start to pra-a-ay…the frame is bent, the muffler went, the radio—it's oka-a-ay…oh what fun it is to ride in a Rusty Chevrolet…"_

"Sounds like someone's stolen your car, Reid!" Emily joked.

Reid blushed. "My car's a Volvo, not a Chevrolet."

"Still…"

The tree gained more decorations and finally Emily brought out the star. "I'll have to get a chair," she said. "I can never reach…"

"Let me," Reid said, and standing on his tiptoes he managed to get the giant yellow-lighted star on top of the humongous tree. "There."

"Perfect," the girls said in unison, staring at the finished tree.

"Now for some chili," said Garcia. "It's about done, and then I can start on dessert."

* * *

**A/N: The song playing in the stereo is "Rusty Chevrolet" by a group called Da Yoopers. They're a singing comedy group based out of the UP in Michigan, and they're hilarious! If there's a clip on YouTube, I recommend it.**


	4. Surprise Guests

**Standard disclaimers apply.

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**

"Chili for Christmas." Emily was stirring some sour cream into her soup cup, watchign as the red became a bright orange.

"Well, I _am_ from San Francisco," Garcia pointed out. "Mexican food there is like okra and cornbread in the South."

"It's good, Garcia," Reid said. He was fumbling his fingers with each spoonful, as though he were looking for something.

"Cracker?"

"What?"

Garcia held up the Ritz box. "For your chili?"

"Ah, yes. Thanks." The young man began dipping the round bread objects into his soup cup, smiling as he ate each one. The sounds of "The Twelve Pains of Christmas" was playing on the stereo, and the thought of the poor man stringing lights on the house that didn't work made him spray cracker bits all over the countertop in laughter.

"Any go up your nose?"

"No," Reid said, trying to swallow what remained in his mouth. "Nothing a good bowl of ice cream can't fix."

"How about rice pudding, hon? I got a recipe from one of my neighbors…"

Reid's eyes shone like Garcia had told him the Second Coming had arrived. "Really?"

"Yeah. I figured I'd give that a whirl, and I got big waffle cones to put it in, so it could kinda be ice cream-like if we chilled it a bit."

"Come on," Emily said before Reid could reach over and kiss the poor tech. "I've got some wreaths you could help me hang."

"And I've got another movie," Garcia said.

"White Christmas?" Emily said, thinking of the old classic that had played in France when she was a child.

"It's a Wonderful Life?" Reid asked, remembering his mom's face when she saw it.

"No…I kinda brought Home Alone in the pile."

"Home Alone is a Christmas movie?" Emily asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Reid said. "It's set at Christmas time, it's about the holidays and families…"

"And it's hilarious," Garcia finished. "I'll put it on and make the pudding and some popcorn."

There were chuckles and laughs as the movie began to play, and the ladies soon found out that it was a favorite of Reid's—he could quote the movie nearly word-for-word.

"_This house is so full of people it makes me sick! When I grow up and get married, I'm livin' alone! Did you hear me? I'm livin' alone! I'm livin alone!"_

"Yeah, well, it's not all it's cracked up to be, kid," Emily said under her breath. "Place gets awfully quiet."

"But in a house with fifteen people in it, you'd want the space," Reid pointed out. "It's not like us, where we go day in and out with no one at home except the dog or the cat."

"Or the trusty plant," Garcia said. "Though it's been nice since Kevin's been stopping by lately…"

A pair of sly smiles fell on two faces as Garcia said that.

"We know," Emily said. "The look on his face says it all."

"Oh…"

"Merry Christmas, Garcia!"

The three continued hanging wreaths and cooking until Garcia's phone went off. "Oracle of all things knowable and unknowable, Christmas edition," she said. "How can I help you?"

The conversation then turned into a series of hushed whispers and chuckles. "Sure. Bring 'em over—we're at Emily's watching movies and hanging decorations. You'll be in time for dessert…"

"Am I having a party?"

"I would assume so," Reid said.

"Nice of her to tell me."

"I don't think it's _that_ kind of party…"

----

The wreaths were hung, the pudding was nice and cold and there were three happy agents eating pudding cones and popcorn while watching the kid in the movie 'set up' for his impending 'visitors.'

"I love this part," Reid said, taking another bite of his cone. "Chocolate chips and raisins—Garcia, you're a genius."

"Coming from a certified genius, that's a compliment right there," Garcia said, her mouth full of waffle cone.

"Who's a genius?" a voice said in the doorway as several pairs of feet sounded on the welcome mat.

"JJ? Will?"

"Merry Christmas, Emily!" the couple said.

"But…I thought you were in Louisiana…"

"Change of plans," Will said. "My sister is going out of town for the holiday, and since we were there for Thanksgiving, we decided to stay here."

"Well, it's good you could come…"

"Hey, Garcia promised dessert and movies, and there was talk of making cookies later," JJ said. "I haven't done that since I was a kid."

"What's this one you're watching?" Will asked, setting Henry down on the floor near the sofa.

"Oh, this is great," Reid said, telling the Southerner all about it. "See, now he's going to try and break down the door…"

"A blowtorch?"

"Pretty creative for an eight-year old."

Will stared. "Creative?"

"Well, how does he know they're not going to hurt him?" Reid said simply. "Sure, maybe a blowtorch is a little over the top, but it worked."

"And the ornaments?"

"That was a lucky guess," Reid admitted as the two took seats while the girls pored over cookbooks the Garcia had brought.


	5. Church Windows and Christmas Cookies

**Standard disclaimers apply.

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**

"There are like, one hundred different kinds of cookies I'd like to make in this thing," Emily said, flipping through an ancient copy of the _Betty Crocker Cookbook_ that had to be at least sixty years old. "How'd you find an antique like this, anyway, Garcia?"

"Heirloom. Not 'antique'."

"Still…"

"It was my grandma's. My mom had it, then me. By the way, the butter cookies work great for making Christmas cookies, especially when you make powdered-sugar frosting."

"Sounds tricky," JJ said. "We made that frosting one year at my house, when I was a kid—we ended up with soup that was colored."

"The trick is to use only a tablespoon of milk. Add liberal amounts of powdered sugar to thicken as needed."

"Let's try it. How many dozen can we make in a batch?" Emily wondered.

"Says here you can make four dozen, though we'll need Christmas cookie cutters to do it."

The girls's eyes gleamed. "Oh, guys," Emily called out, drawing the attention of Reid and Will, who were still arguing about the logistics of the 'fun house' they'd just witnessed in the movie. "Would you mind making a trip for us?"

"Depends," Will said, his eyebrows raised a little. "What are we getting?"

"Oh, not much," JJ said. "Just some flour. And chocolate chips."

"Christmas cookie cutters," Garcia added.

"And decorative sprinkles, and powdered sugar," Emily finished.

"Would you like us to bring home the bakery too?" Will teased. "I mean, I can get éclairs cheap now…"

"Ooooh, get those too," Emily said, digging through her purse. "Here," she said, handing over a stack of twenties. "This should cover it. And grab anything else you think we'll need—especially you, Reid."

"Me?"

"Yeah, handsome. I'd suggest swinging by the good doctor's place and grabbing a change of clothes for him," Garcia told Will. "He's celebrating Christmas this year, and not all alone in that apartment of his."

"I thought we were putting up Emily's tree and watching movies," Reid spluttered. "We've done part of that…"

"Oh, no, Doctor," Garcia said, wiggling a finger. "There's cookies to make, presents to wrap, another breakfast and dinner to plan, and I hear that one of the churches is having a caroling festival near the Mall." The tech's eyes grew brighter with each thing she listed. "All part of the holidays."

"But…where will I _sleep_?"

"The couch folds out, Reid," Emily said. "Lord knows we've slept on worse before."

Reid looked at Emily's couch. It was extremely comfortable, and overstuffed in all the right places. He looked up at his colleagues, who were busy pointing out the different kinds of cookies they wanted to make.

Heaving a sigh, Reid grabbed his coat. "Can we get some marshmallows and coconut, too?" he asked.

"What for?"

"Well, if we're making cookies, I'd like some church windows."

"Huh. Never heard of those…" Garcia's eyes were now wide with interest.

"My mom used to make them. They're good—especially if you like chocolate…"

Emily handed him another twenty. "We'll make two batches."

----

"It's the Grinch," Reid said as he climbed into Will's F-150. "They lured me in with the Grinch."

"You don't like Christmas?"

"No. I love Christmas. It just…makes me a little sad sometimes, is all."

"Your mom?"

Reid nodded. "Mom loves Christmas. She'd decorate, make cookies, all the things we're doing now. As she got worse, though, she'd forget some of the things she used to do. By the time I was sixteen she'd even forgotten the day, and only put up the Christmas tree because I was hauling it out."

"Wow. My daddy loved the holidays too," Will said. "Used to celebrate December 1st with some eggnog at his favorite bar on Bourbon Street, then he'd come home and put up the tree and decorate the house. Mom used to yell at him at three in the morning 'cause he was still putting lights up on the roof."

"Kind of like that movie, huh?" Reid smiled.

"Yeah. Except they didn't twinkle—they were all different colors. Our house stood out for a month, and we'd get people who'd drive by and stare."

"No snowmen or Santa Clauses in the yard?"

"Pop loved the yard ornaments that moved," Will said. "I remember his last Christmas—he'd just gotten some snowmen that changed colors and a train that actually worked its way around a large track that he'd put around the house. That was on top of the Santa climbing a ladder and the kids waving out of the gingerbread house."

"Wow. And I thought having tinsel on the tree was high style."

"Nah. People loved it. Our neighbors knew my daddy as a good man, a good detective and a wonderful spirit at Christmas. I'd start decorating the house, but JJ warned me that she wasn't blinding the neighborhood with twinkle lights."

"So those icicle things…"

"She likes those. We put 'em up last week. And I got a pre-lit tree, and a little singing Santa and a singing Christmas tree."

"Picking up where your dad left off?"

"She won't let me decorate to the hilt, so the place is going to move and sing," Will laughed.

"That reminds me," Reid said. "We should stop off to the tape store…"

"I saw that bag Garcia had back at Emily's," Will countered. "She's got a small rental store of her own in there."

"Yeah, but she didn't get some of the better new classics," Reid pointed out. "For starters, she missed _National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."_

"No…"

"Yeah. And there's a couple of good versions of _A Christmas Carol_ I think they'll like. One has the Muppets."

"I liked that. My nephews watched that over and over when it came out."

Soon the truck reached the giant Target Greatland that stood alone in a sea of cement parking lots and light poles. "You really think we'll find the stuff they want here?"

"Everything but the Christmas cookie cutters, though we might get lucky," Reid said. "We might have to go to a bake shop to get that."

"Let's go," Will said. "It's getting cold, and I've got to swing by our house too."

"For…?"

"Well, some clothes, extra stuff for the baby, couple of air mattresses and sleeping bags…"

"You're staying too?"

"Reid, she's having way too much fun to leave. Plus, I get to argue the finer points of the Christmas new classics with you, so there you go."

Reid smiled as the two men stepped inside the store. "Now, baking supplies are this way…I think…"


	6. Men, Shopping

**Standard disclaimers apply.

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**

"Remember when the only choices were 'cake mix' and 'box of cookies'?"

Reid stared at the Southerner in wonder. "There were _that_ many?"

"Not much for the kitchen, are you?"

"Sounds like you're not either."

The two men were staring at the giant baking display in the middle of Aisle 12, completely confounded by the array of baking items available.

"Who knew there were like, twelve different kinds of sugar?" Will groused.

"Hmm. Powdered, white from beets, white from cane, brown from beets, brown from cane, granulated…there's only six."

Will stared at Reid like the kid had just admitted to wearing a pale pink dress with ruffles on a busy street corner.

"Or perhaps that book on sugar-making _wasn't_ the best thing to read a couple weeks ago…"

Turning a suspicious eye on the younger man, Will reached for the bag of powdered sugar and put it into the miniature cart. "Chocolate chips…"

"Semi-sweet, milk, or dark?"

"Umm…the sweet ones. And maybe some dark ones too."

Two bags of cocoa-colored chips went into the cart.

"Five pound bag of…whoa," Will said, his eyes staring at the white powdery remnants of what had been a shelf of flour. "Looks like someone had a fire sale."

"Excuse me," Reid asked, turning towards the nearest store associate. "Is there any more flour?"

The man looked at Reid as though he had rocks in his head. "Yeah. All around there." He waved his hands at the sixteen different kinds of flour available.

"Any more of the one on sale?"

"Oh, that. Sorry, we don't. I've got a truck coming in tomorrow, but…"

"Thanks." Reid then picked one that looked like cookie flour. "All-purpose should work, right?"

"What my mama always used," Will replied. He was busy looking at a special display of edible decorations for Christmas cookies. "What ones should we get?"

"Red sugar," Reid said quickly. "And green sugar. Those little cinnamon things for reindeer noses."

"How about some of these?" Will asked, holding up a small container of nonpareils. They were silver. "Snowman buttons."

"And some of those little Christmas tree thingies."

As soon as they finished loading the cart, the two men peered inside the basket. "Not a lot there," Will pointed out.

"Well, they did say to get some snack food too," Reid replied.

"Cheese ball and pretzel crackers it is!" Will said, making a beeline for the produce department.

"And some sliced cheese, the kind on the little tray, with olives."

"Olives?" Will repeated, making a face.

"Yeah. Green olives."

"Oh. For a minute there I thought you meant black ones."

"Ugh."

"Ditto."

Once the cart began to look a little more full, Will strolled into the meat department. "What are we getting now?" Reid asked, a little fearful of what the man might pick up.

"I was thinking a nice surprise," Will said. "Like steaks and shrimp for a grill…"

"It's the middle of December, Will. You missed the snow falling as we came in?"

"That's why some smart Northerner invented the grill pan," Will grinned. "Some good vegetables and steak—now, that's more my style of cooking."

"You don't bake?"

"Is the Pope a Baptist?"

"I guess that's a 'no'."

Will's eyebrows raised a sixteenth of an inch. "Come on. All we need now are the cookie cutters."

"Now there I might know something," Reid said. "Let's go."

---

An hour later, the two men were standing near a rack of pots and pans. On a small shelf nearby, there were dozens of plastic cookie cutters in various shapes and sizes.

"Boot," Reid said, pulling one immediately off the shelf.

"Christmas tree," Will said, doing likewise.

"Santa head."

"Reindeer."

"Angel."

"Snowflake."

"Toy sack."

"Fish."

"Fish?" Reid asked.

"Yeah. Something different."

Reid's eyes narrowed. "If we get nabbed for this, I'm blaming you."

"Okay. I'm blaming you, though."

"Clover."

"Moose."

"Diamond."

"Teddy bear."

"Frog."

"Snowman."

"Stocking cap."

"Carrot."

"Bird."

"Horse."

"Think we've got enough?"

Reid peered into the cart. "Yeah. That should be plenty."

"Swell," Will said. "Then let's head to the tape store and grab our stuff. I've got a few 'Christmas' movies to pick up too…"

Reid stared at the Southerner, his eyes growing suspicious. "I don't like the sound of that," he said.

"Relax. 'New classics,' every one."

"If you say so…"

"I promise, Reid," Will said, his hand raised solemnly. "You'll like them, even if no one else does."


	7. The Fish Cookie

**Standard disclaimers apply.

* * *

**

"_Die Hard_ is not a Christmas movie," JJ protested.

"Is too," Will countered. "Takes place at Christmas, during a Christmas party; there's decorations for Christmas throughout the picture, _and_ there is even a Christmas tree or two to be seen. Voila, a Christmas picture."

"Next thing I know you'll be telling me that the moon is made of green cheese and little men walk on Mars."

"It's made of Gouda, actually," Will teased. "And women walk on Mars too."

"Hey, I'm all for a Christmas-themed action flick," Emily said. "What else you got?"

"_Running Scared, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Deck the Halls, The Muppets Christmas Carol, _and we even found a version of the Christmas Carol done by Mickey Mouse." Reid sat the bag of DVD's on the coffee table in the living room, keeping the haul separate from the bags of cookie making items.

"You got flour?" Garcia asked. "Cause our Emily here doesn't bake all that much…"

"With our schedules, who could?"

"Good point." Garcia began measuring out the ingredients for butter cookies while Emily and JJ looked at the cookie cutters the guys had brought. Will and Reid had quietly moseyed to the couch where they planned to argue the finer points of Bruce Willis in a HVAC shaft.

"Let's see…snowman, reindeer, Christmas tree—oh, that's cute," JJ said, picking up the green plastic tree shape.

"Santa hat, little bag of toys, teddy bear…hey, what's this?" Emily picked up the little plastic fish shape. "Since when are fish Christmas things?"

Both Will and Reid looked at each other. "It was _his_ fault," they said in unison, pointing fingers at each other.

The girls just laughed. "So a fish is Christmassy," Garcia said. "We'll show them…"

The dough was chilling in the refrigerator, and the tech put powdered sugar into six small bowls. To the sugar she added only a tablespoon of milk, and then said, "Stir."

"Only that much milk? We're going to need more, aren't we…?"

"Trust me, Emily, you won't," JJ said. "Remember, colored soup…"

"Right." Dutifully, Emily stirred the milk and sugar concoction. It turned into a thick white paste, easy to spread on a baked cookie.

"Food coloring," Garcia said, opening cupboards.

"There's supposed to be coloring to this?"

"You don't have any, do you?"

Emily grinned sheepishly. "Ah…"

"Think your neighbors might?"

"Mr. Abernathy should," the brunette replied. "He's a baker by trade—loves the stuff. I'll go ask him."

"I'll come too," JJ said, leaving Garcia squealing with delight at the sounds of gunfire and shattering glass coming from Emily's widescreen. "Come on," Garcia said. "You should know by now that there's always gonna be _one_ lone gunman…"

"I would have never guessed," Emily said as the two women walked down the hall. "Garcia as a Bruce Willis fan, I mean."

"Yeah, she likes his movies. One night a few years ago we ran a complete marathon. As much of a romantic comedy lover as she is, she also likes a good, well-written action picture."

"Remind me to pull out _True Lies_ later. She'll love it."

JJ's eyes raised an nth of a degree. "Now _I_ never would have guessed."

"Hey, great plot. Good acting. Very believable. One of my favorites." Emily tapped on the door, calling out, "Mr. Abernathy? It's Emily Prentiss, from next door? Are you home?"

The sound of the lock being retracted clicked in the women's ears. "Why, Miss Prentiss," the wizened little man said, a kindly sparkle in his green eyes. "Are you here for more croissants?"

"Actually, Mr. Abernathy, we're here to ask if we can borrow some food coloring," Emily said. "I don't have any, and we're making Christmas cookies…"

"Ah, yes, yes," the little man said, ushering Emily and JJ into his apartment. "Now, remember to only use a little—a couple drops goes a long way. For frosting, yes?"

"Yeah. We're hoping to, ah, 'surprise' a couple of our friends…"

"Gentlemen, I presume?"

"Colleagues and her boyfriend," Emily said, pointing a thumb at the silent JJ.

"You do remember your color wheel?"

"Vaguely…"

"For lavender, one drop of red and one drop of blue. For mint, one drop of green. For orange, one drop red and two drops yellow. The rest just put in a drop of the color you want." He handed Emily a small box. "Have fun, and if I may…"

"We'll come back with a plate of them," JJ promised.

"Wonderful. I like seeing how others make cookies. Gives me ideas, you know…"

The two agents thanked the baker and headed back to Emily's apartment, where Garcia was rolling out dough and flouring the cookie cutters. "Which one first?" she asked.

"The Christmas tree," JJ said.

"The boot," Emily said.

"Grab one and press," Garcia said, already pulling a Santa head out of the dough. Soon the dough was sitting on trays, either baking in the oven or waiting patiently for their turn.

"We get to frost these, it'll be the good part," Garcia grumbled, watching as Bruce was climbing through that iconic vent shaft.

"Why my kitchen faces the living room," Emily said, sitting on a barstool-like chair. "Helps when I'm trying to imitate a recipe on the Food Network."

Finally the cookies were done. "Oh, guys," JJ sang. "Either come help decorate cookies or you get what we give you…"

"Coming," the two men said, pressing 'pause'. They looked down at the frosting colors, puzzled. "Where's the red and green?" Will asked.

"We're trying something 'different' this year. Purple, lemon yellow, blue and orange, white and gold." JJ has a definite smile on her face. "Well?"

"This is payback for the fish, isn't it?" Reid said. "We thought it was interesting."

"Oh, it is. Easy to frost, too." JJ picked up a fish cookie and painted it purple, dropping a cinnamon ball on it and sprinkling it with red sugar and silver balls. "There. One fish done. Now for a snowman…"


End file.
